Hold These Truths to be Self Evident
by My Beautiful Ending
Summary: A series of one shots, each dealing with a different member of the team, mostly friendship or romantic. Follows my other story "In the Course of Human Events." Please enjoy!
1. Cosmo Renfro

As much as a clothes horse Cosmo Renfro was, the whole team found it highly ironic that the woman he had fallen head over heels for didn't care one whit what she (or he) wore. They used it to tease him on any number of occasions.

But it was really quite true. Mary Elisabeth Kendall could pull off any designer fashion with ease, given her figure and her natural beauty, but she would rather go around in jeans and a baggy T-shirt.

It did prove something, though. The whole team –and especially Sam –could tell that she really, honestly loved Cosmo for who he was, and not the clothes he wore or the personality he faked sometimes. She saw right through him and demanded nothing less than a man who could be honest with her –one who didn't have to wear the right clothes or say the right things to impress a girl.

Oh, he still bought the clothes and told the jokes–Sam didn't think anyone could cure him of that, though if he had to bet money on anyone, it would be Mary Elisabeth –but they weren't as showy as before. They were just …Cosmo.

It was a good change, all in all.


	2. Samuel Gerard

Sam had been married once, as a young man. But she had died, and he had resolved not to subject himself to that kind of heartache again.

That was why nothing had ever happened with Cath –though he did love her, and the feeling was mutual from her as well. But she was his boss, and they were professionals, and professionals didn't let their feelings run away with them or wear their hearts on their sleeves.

He had thought he could protect himself –and in some way, protect _her_ –from the same sort of grief he had experienced when his late wife had died. After all, they were in quite dangerous lines of work, and it was no stretch of the imagination that something might happen to one of them someday… it was just best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Somehow, he had never imagined applying the same principle to the rest of his team.

Seeing Noah lie in a pool of his own blood had given him a severe wake up call –one that losing anybody else in the world couldn't have accomplished. He loved that boy like his own son, and he had never told him. He had never told him just how much he cared for and respected him.

And then a miracle came in the form of Caro Pierce, helping that boy hold on long enough to get to the hospital. He had gotten the boy back. He hadn't lost him, after all.

Some people said you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks, but Sam Gerard would beg to differ. He learned something the day that Noah opened his eyes: you didn't waste time when you were with people that you loved.

So when he called in to report and ask after Noah's 'mystery woman,' he ended the phone call by asking Cath out on a date.


	3. Catherine Walsh

Catherine Walsh figured that she had fallen for Sam Gerard from almost the first moment she had met him. He had a magnetic allure and a take-charge personality, and the man wasn't bad on the eyes either. And there was no denying that he looked good in jeans.

But he had never asked her out, never gone further than was strictly friendly, though she had seen the looks and the glances over the years. After enough time had passed and she got to know him well enough, she realized that he cared about her, but would never do anything about it.

She had told herself she could live with that, and didn't push it. She didn't get his love, but she got his friendship and his respect, two things that might not have come her way if he _had_ asked her out on that date. And she found herself glad that he had held himself back, because she found she valued those things very much.

But, she reflected as she leaned against his shoulder at one of the team's annual Christmas parties, all of those things together were what she valued most.

Noah caught Caro, his girlfriend of four months, under the mistletoe while the rest of the team whistled. Cath smiled as she felt Sam's lips brush her hair. "When do I get my turn?" she asked.

"I don't have to wait to be under a plant," he said.

She smiled and leaned into his kiss.

_God bless us, every one._


	4. Bobby Biggs

**AN: I actually did find a definition for 'hinky', but it means something like unrealiable or dishonest, so I'm going with the connotation I got from the Fugitive, which was 'weird' and 'strange'. I like it better.**

* * *

Bobby had gotten the word "hinky" from his wife. She had probably used it to describe herself.

Most people who met her on the street probably wondered if Valerie Biggs realized that the seventies were out of style. She wore bell-bottomed jeans and dangly necklaces and earrings, and her color of choice was purple. She wore her hair in a long brown braid down her back, read the dictionary for fun, and cooked vegetarian, but she was, quite possibly, the nicest soul on earth. She worked as a trauma psychiatrist for kids, and there was no one better suited for the job. She also would pull members of the Team out of the group at the various social gatherings and, with just a few words, she'd have them spilling whatever was bothering them. It was a cathartic experience.

Nobody knew just what she had seen in Robert Biggs, but every single member of the Team loved her, sometimes joking that they only kept Bobby around so they could get Valerie.

When they learned she was expecting a Baby Biggs, there was nobody more excited than that group of new Aunts and Uncles.

"They're gonna spoil this kid," Bobby told her before her baby shower.

"No, _you_ are," Valerie said.

"Sure they will –huh? I am?"

"She's going to be Daddy's little girl, after all," Valerie said placidly.

Biggs gave in to the inevitable. "Yeah, okay. I will."

"I was thinking about names," Valerie continued, in her slightly dreamy way. "What do you think about Prairie? Or Ermingarde?"

Yep, Biggs reflected, his wife was hinky.

But nobody ever said being hinky was a _bad_ thing.


	5. Savannah Cooper

**AN: Savannah's was the one I had the most trouble with, but surprisingly, it's one of the longer ones. Enjoy!**

Savannah Cooper had joined the team three years ago and since then had been the only woman. At the start, they had tried to set her up with Cosmo (to which she had said_ hell_ no; she couldn't date a man who spent more on clothes than she did). Then they had let her alone when it came to dating.

She had always worked in a profession that was predominately male, so she had the chance to observe her friends and colleagues at their best and at their worst. It was quite useful for figuring out just what she wanted (or could work with) in a man. But when she finally found said man, she didn't tell the Team at first. They considered her family, like a sister –and as such she had quite a few brothers ready and willing to scare off anybody that they deemed unworthy.

Worst-case scenario: they'd meet Ben and scare him off. Best-case scenario: they'd actually like Ben… but might end up inadvertently scaring him off anyway. It was a toss up, and for the life of her, she couldn't figure out which was more likely. She didn't like keeping secrets –in fact, she wasn't very good at it. So it was only a matter of time before they found out.

"Cooper, why are you always makin' calls to New York?" Sam asked one day.

"No harm in making calls," she said.

"But you've never talked on the phone like this," Sam said.

"Is it really your business?" she asked without heat, because she knew that Sam considered anything having to do with his team 'his business'.

"Sure it is; one of my kids is running up the phone bill," Sam said. "Have you been calling boys, Cooper?"

She stared.

He stared back.

"How…" she began.

"Big dog's _always right_," Sam said, grinning. "So. Why didn't you tell us, and when do we get to meet him?"

"Meet who?" Noah said, passing by on his way to the coffee maker.

"Savannah's boyfriend."

"You've got a boyfriend?" Noah said, interested.

"Who's got a boyfriend?" Cosmo asked, sticking his head out of the break room.

Savannah rolled her eyes. It was a good thing Biggs was on family leave with Valerie, otherwise he'd be poking his nose in here, too. "His name is Ben Douglas," she said. "He lives in New York."

"What does he do?" Cosmo asked.

"How'd you meet?" Noah asked.

"When do we get to check him out?" Sam asked.

"Never, if you don't promise not to scare him away," Savannah threatened.

"Who, us?" Sam asked, glancing at Noah and Cosmo. "We'd never do such a thing. Right fellas?"

"Course not," Cosmo said.

"Never, 'Vannah," Noah said, smiling.

"I believe Noah," she grumbled.

"Oh, ouch," Cosmo said, "that hurts. Don't it hurt, Sam?"

"Oh yeah," Sam said, but he was grinning. "Cooper, call him. If he really likes you, we won't be enough to scare him off. We won't deliberately try, of course."

"Right," Noah said.

"Of course," Cosmo added.

Why did he have to pull perfectly sound arguments out of thin air? "Fine," Savannah said, but all three guys saw the smile on her face as she headed for the phone.


	6. Noah Newman

**AN: LAST CHAPTER! Figured I'd better post it before I go off to become an adult at college. Thank you SO MUCH for all support/encouragement, ChandaK562. You're the best.**

* * *

"You are looking," Caro said happily, "At a fully registered nurse." She smirked.

"You're an RN?" Noah asked, beaming at her.

"That's what I _said_," she said, slapping him with her paperback.

"Congratulations, Caro," Valerie Biggs said, holding tiny Jessamine Biggs and smiling. They were at the team's gathering to get to know one-month-old Jessie, and Caro had figured that it was as good a place as any to drop the bombshell. After Jessie got her spotlight, of course.

"Well done, young lady," Sam said, and Caro glowed. It was high praise from him.

Cath just gave her a hug, as did 'Vannah.

"You just did it in case Noah gets himself into a jam again, didn'tcha Caro?" Cosmo said jokingly.

"Gotta keep him out of the hospital somehow," Caro said lightly.

It had become something of a running joke with the team, now that almost a year had come and gone from the horrible incident that had left Noah dangling within a hair's breadth of life and death. He was glad that they could crack jokes about it now –for such a long time they had tried to coddle him, and it had taken weeks to convince everybody that he wasn't having any of it.

He was going to _do his job,_ just like the rest of them.

And it wasn't like he had a _propensity_ for getting shot, was it? That was Sam's area of expertise. Noah voiced such an opinion now.

"Newman, I have quite a bit more mileage than you," Sam said. "It's _expected_ of me."

Cath was heard to mumble something along the lines of, "no it's not, you stubborn idiot" into her glass. But then the conversation drifted onwards to more baby-like material, and the girls went with Valerie to see the nursery and coo over all the adorable baby things, and the men left to go to the garage and talk about cars.

Noah was able to catch Caro before she went upstairs.

"I really am proud of you, you know," he said.

"I know," Caro said, smirking.

"So, Miss RN, what are you going to do now?"

"Go look for a nursing position," Caro said, laughing, "and quit that horrible office job. Why?"

"Well, I was just thinking that… well, change is good, you know?"

"Yeah," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "Change got me you."

The look of honest love in her eyes gave him the confidence to pull the black box out of his pocket and hold it out to her. "Well… seeing that you like being an RN so much… would you consider becoming a CN, too?"

She took the box with an open mouth and shaky hands, and stared at the simple diamond in shock. "Noah?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"CN. Caroline Newman."

"Yeah, _got that bit,_" she said, half crying, half laughing.

He hugged her. "I love you, Caro. Will you marry me?"

"Yes," she said, nodding as he put the ring on her finger. "Oh, yes. I love you to pieces, Noah Newman."

She proceeded to kiss the breath out of him.

They didn't notice all the smiling faces peeking over the stairs and around the doors.


End file.
